Arrest in Philadelphia girl's kidnapping, rape

Christina Regusters was arrested by the Philadelphia Police Special Victims…

February 15, 2013|By Tracy Jordan, Of The Morning Call

Philadelphia police made an arrest Thursday in last month's kidnapping of a 5-year-old girl abducted from her school by a woman wearing traditional black Muslim clothing and found in a nearby park the next day morning wearing only a T-shirt.

Christina Regusters, 19, is in custody and will be charged with kidnapping, rape, aggravated assault, unlawful restraint, simple assault, indecent assault, criminal conspiracy and several additional related offenses in the Jan. 14 abduction, according to a police news release.

Although Regusters is the only person who has been arrested and taken into custody, the fact police have charged her with criminal conspiracy indicates others were involved.

The girl was taken Jan. 14 out of her kindergarten classroom at W.C. Bryant Elementary School in West Philadelphia by a woman who pretended to be her mother, a Muslim who wears traditional Islamic black clothing that includes a veil and gloves.

The kidnapping shocked the city because of the brazen abduction and the total lapse in school security, especially since it happened just one month after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

The principal at Bryant Elementary School was replaced and action was taken against three other employees two weeks after the kidnapping.

The abducted girl was the subject of a nationwide Amber Alert until she was found in the early morning hours of Jan. 15 at an Upper Darby Township playground in the Cobbs Creek Parkway – just blocks from her school and the home where she was allegedly held and raped.

Although her name was released when she was abducted, The Morning Call is withholding her name in this report because the charges indicate she is an alleged sexual assault victim. The Morning Call generally withholds the names of all sexual assault victims.

According to other published reports and wire stories, Regusters lives at 6243 Walton Ave., the house where police executed a search warrant last week.

A reward of up $80,000 was being offered for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the case, but published reports say it was the girl who led police to her alleged kidnapper by retracing her steps after she was taken from her school.

Authorities have said the girl was specifically targeted based on the way she was abducted, but they have not put forth a possible motive.

A sanitation worker who heard her cries from the playground at 4:40 a.m. Jan. 15 received the $10,000 reward from the city that Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter offered for the girl's safe return.